Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
System: XBox   Publisher: Rockstar Games   Developer: Rockstar North   Genre: Action   Release Date: 10/26/04

Quick Synopsis	Overall Score
Enjoyment:  GTA: San Andreas is the best of the Grand Theft Auto games and one of the best games released in the year 2004.

GTA: San Andreas is the best of the Grand Theft Auto games and one of the best games released in the year 2004.  GTA: San Andreas begins in 1992 and takes place on the island of San Andreas which contains a total of three major cities.  The first city that your character Carl Johnson, aka. C.J., will visit is his home town Los Santos.  C.J. comes home after hearing of his mother's death to find that his gang is in shambles.  He has been away from his home for nearly five years and in that time a lot has changed for the Grove Street Families.  C.J.'s brother Sweet is not too happy with him for ditching his gang for all these years and bullies him into helping take back the neighborhood from their rival gang, the Ballas.  This is why C.J. left in the first place, to get away from all this trouble.

Unfortunately C.J. has more than just gang problems to deal with, he has legal problems too.  Upon entering Los Santos C.J. was accosted by two crooked cops demanding his cooperation or else.  Now C.J. is stuck in Los Santos taking orders from his gang and the police; which between the two keep him plenty busy.  C.J. has been ordered and threatened not to leave Los Santos until otherwise ordered to do so by officer Tenpenny and his partner.  What other choice does he have but to cooperate?

The city of Los Santos is laid out similarly to Los Angeles, California and Grove Street, which is home to C.J. and his gang, represents the slums of the city.  Everything in and around Grove Street is sorely run down, as some would say this is the wrong side of the tracks.  In areas such as these you can expect to find graffiti covering the buildings, run-down houses, junk cars, and look out for drive-by shootings.  One of C.J.'s first missions, which remains through the entire game, is to cover up the rival gang's graffiti.  This is synonymous with the hidden packages that you had to find in GTA: Vice City.

There are three leaders in the Grove Street gang that C.J. will often work with, his brother Sweet, Ryder, and Big Smoke.  Together they will paint over graffiti, perform drive-bys, and attack the Ballas.  Most importantly they wish to have all of the crack dealing, which is done by the Ballas, out of their neighborhood.  So, not surprisingly, they go looking to find the major dealers and work to convince them of the errors in their judgment.  Also on their to do list is recruitment of new members for their gang.  Safety and power comes in numbers.

You don't only get the ghetto parts of Los Angeles, you get the rich parts as well.  Travel up and down these areas, killing people on the streets and you may soon be rolling in the dough.  These people have money.  You can use this cash to build up on your wardrobe, real estate, or weaponry.  You can also make money by performing fire-fighter missions, vigilante missions, ambulance missions, etc.  Not only do you get money for these, but if you complete all of the required levels you get a good reward at the end.  For instance, if you complete all of the fire-fighter missions you will become fire proof.  There are other mini games to try that don't give you quite as good rewards, but are still fun like racing, dating, dancing, and low-rider contests.  With all of these games and all of the side missions this game can take forever to fully complete.